


what once was lost

by meian



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Angst, Keith (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Winter Soldier AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-12 18:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12965568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meian/pseuds/meian
Summary: "He looked right at me, and he didn't even know me." After years spent thinking they were dead, Keith meets a friend once again.





	what once was lost

**Author's Note:**

> I had a burning need to basically write the fic where Sheith is Stucky so this happened. Inspired pretty heavily by _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_ AKA the best Marvel film ever made ~~fight me on this~~. Just for reference, Keith is in his 30s. Feedback is appreciated.

There were two things in life Keith Kogane trusted beyond all else, and one of those things was his instinct. The hairs quickly rose on the back of his neck, and he spun around with a gasp, clutching his knife tightly in his fist. But there was nothing but clean, white snow and the dark, decrepit, old town surrounding him.

"Run another perimeter check," he hissed under his breath, watching it grow cloudy before his eyes. The sight alone had shivers running down his spine. Fucking Russia. Next time he was volunteering himself for the next mission in the Caribbean. "And what's taking Pidge so long?"

"I've already got the the scanners up and there are no heat signatures- oh, shit, wait. Never mind, that's a squirrel," said Hunk, his voice coming muffled through Keith's earpiece, but Keith could still hear the sarcasm loud and clear. He was right, though. The place was an absolute ghost town. If anyone else was around, Keith would know. Naturally, it was a perfect spot for an illegal arms factory. "Also Pidge says, 'fuck you, hacking is an art'. Her words, not mine."

Keith rolled his eyes and considered flipping Pidge off, knowing it would be caught by her surveillance drone, Rover, but he decided against risking potential frost bite. As it turned out, he rather liked having his appendages intact, even if he wore fingerless gloves in freezing temperatures. Old habits died hard, and, well, he had his reasons. With a huff, he shoved his hands into his pockets and braced against a strong gust of wind.

The seconds ticked by as Keith waited, crouched against the wall of the warehouse. For all that he was impatient, he knew he was lucky to have Pidge and Hunk along for the ride on this mission. They were amongst A.L.T.E.A.'s best and brightest. The dream team of the tech department. His last mission had been with Slav and Matt somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Montana with nothing to distract him from expressing his desire to throttle either one of them by the end of the day.

"Alright, security's down, but be quick. I know you're reckless, but I want to be able to get you out in one piece. Intel only. That means no explosives. Plant the virus and get out."

"You're killing me, Smalls," Keith groaned, shaking his head, but flashing a brief thumbs up at Rover anyway.

Thumb print sensor made a feeble beep as it disabled, the door's lock clicking open audibly. The door swung open automatically with a high-pitched creak that made him wince. The entrance of the warehouse came awash suddenly in fluorescent lights the moment Keith stepped over the threshold. Keith squinted in the brightness as he fumbled for footing, just as a pair of eyes fell on him.

An unnaturally cheerful voice echoed across the wide lobby. _"Welcome, sir."_

Keith's gasp caught in his throat as he whipped his head around, immediately launching his knife at the source of the voice without sparing another thought. A blonde woman with too big eyes and entirely too white teeth gazed unseeingly at him. His blade stuck out right in the center of her head, but instead of blood, electrical sparks sprayed everywhere.

"What? What is it?" Hunk said, panic evident through the static from the mic. "Did something go wrong?"

"Some uncanny valley shit," Keith grumbled, leveling a disturbed glare at the android as his heartbeat slowed back to a normal pace. He pried his knife out of its forehead and placed it back in its sheath on his hip. "Next time give me a heads up when you guys are sending me to a factory run by robots."

"It was in the briefing! It's not my fault you never read them. Also Pidge says, 'Get rekt, mate.' Her words, not mine."

"Hey, I will turn off this earpiece," Keith threatened. Not that he would realistically, but he wasn't willing to admit that Hunk was right, and that he needed them around for this mission. He had a lone wolf reputation to uphold, after all.

He gave a cursory glance around the lobby. The walls were yellowed and worn, plaster cracked from age. Apart from the android receptionist, it didn't look like the facility had ever been in use recently. Keith might have been fooled into believing there was nothing here if he hadn't known better.

A set of tall double doors plastered in various caution signs stood at the far end of the lobby.

Keith crept over to the doors and lifted himself onto his toes, peering cautiously into the round windows. He could feel the whir of machinery through the walls. The assembly floor was teeming with androids tending to all sorts of equipment. He'd expected guns at least, but he wasn't quite sure what he was witnessing here. In the center of the floor was some type of enormous aircraft carrier fitted with wings and dozens upon dozens of cannons, dwarfing the entirety of the floor. From his vantage point, he only caught sight of half of the craft. The Galra had larger operations than he'd been led to believe.

"Jesus fucking christ," he whispered to himself, eyes growing wide. "Can we bring Rover in? You guys have got to get a look at this."

Within minutes the small pyramid-shaped drone appeared beside him, nudging him out of the way to capture footage of the factory floor.

Hunk let out a low whistle, as he watched the live feed. "A helicarrier? No way, man, we've been searching for months."

"Heli-what?" Keith asked, shoving Rover away and taking its place. "What's it for?"

"We heard about the helicarriers months ago from Shay's contacts in London. A couple of undercover implants," Hunk explained as Keith craned his neck to catch a glimpe at the rest of the craft. "There were some rumored plans for a set of aerial carriers linked to the spy network satellites. We're all on the grid nowadays. That means they're gonna be able to eliminate anyone that opposes them without lifting a finger."

"Looks like they're more than plans now," Keith uttered as he took a step backward, cowed by the sudden magnitude of the mission. There were more innocent lives than ever at stake suddenly in the palm of his hands. He could nearly feel the weight of it all pressing down on his shoulders, threatening to overwhelm him. "Shit."

It was hidden in plain sight, right there for the taking. Toss a few explosives. Boom and done. He could stop their operations right now if he felt like it and no one would know.

Keith shook his head. "It's too easy," he said. He'd had spent most of his career going after the Galra, and if there were anything he'd learned, it was that they weren't the type to hand over a victory just like that. "There's something else here."

Hunk hummed in agreement. "You think it's a trap?"

Keith frowned. "Let's hope I'm not here long enough to find out." He curled his fingers around the tiny flash drive holding the virus that would let Pidge take over their operations. All he had to do was find out where to plant it. He let the thought steel his resolve. Quietly, Keith slipped away from the small window and down the hall to the right.

There wasn't much apart from abandoned offices all left in similar states of disarray. He shined his flashlight into every darkened window only to find nearly identical scenes of dust-covered desks and cabinets and crumbling drywall scattered all around. There had to be a command room somewhere in the building.

From the other end of the hallway, Keith suddenly heard the sound of heels clicking against the concrete floor. He flattened himself against the wall but narrowed his eyes at the direction the sound came from. An android marched by and disappeared to the left. After waiting a beat, Keith darted after it.

It was just his luck that he'd managed to find an elevator, but also standing guard by the doors were twin androids poised with rifles in their hands. Their heads swiveled around to stare as he turned the corner, and they raised their weapons at him, like a pair of perfectly choreographed soldiers. If he hadn't already known they weren't human, Keith might've been fooled by the gracefulness of their movements, but their voices came out like a cold and stoic chorus.

_"Halt. Authorized personnel only. Proceed with password."_

"What is that?" Hunk gasped into the earpiece.

"I've got bots pointing guns at me," Keith hissed back. He carefully reached for the knife in his belt, but paused as he saw the androids following his movement with their eyes, eerily synchronized down to the shifts in muscle. "Security's still down, isn't it? _What's the fucking password_?"

 _"Password invalid,"_ the androids said simultaneously.

"Pidge thinks the androids are running on an entirely different network. Probably the mainframe. Shit, I can't believe we missed that. We can get Rover to jam the signal if you just wait a minute."

"I don't think I have a minute," Keith said warily as he heard the very distinct sound of lasers powering up. A minute too late and he'd have a gaping hole or two in his head. There wasn't much of a choice but to take matters into his own hands. One man against two robots with laser guns? No big deal.

Keith ran straight at them.

Both shots came for his chest, and he tucked into a roll, just barely missing the burning beams as they zipped above him. He faintly caught the scent of singed hair, but he supposed coming away with a haircut was a best case scenario at that point.

A second shot fired straight as his head. Keith managed to twist out of the way, but the narrow hallway didn't offer him much distance to travel. The laser grazed the skin of his forearm clear through his bodysuit. He gritted his teeth against the scream in his throat and lunged for the barrel of the gun before the laser reloaded and took another shot at him. The metal burned like an iron, hot enough to blister, but Keith held tight and redirected its fire toward the other android. The head blew clean off, spewing sparks and smoke in its wake.

Keith surged forward, ramming the bot against the wall and pressing the length of his rifle across his chest with his entire weight. He knew he wouldn't be able to hold it there for long, could feel his grip faltering and his feet slipping as the android pushed back against him with twice the strength. He quickly yanked his knife from his belt and stabbed right through its head, carving through the wires strung like nerves inside its body. For good measure, he dug his knife deep into its chest until the light gradually faded from the android's eyes.

The laser gun clattered to the floor as the bot slumped over him and went still. With a grunt, Keith shoved it to the floor and collapsed against the wall, waiting for his breath to steady.

"Keith, you okay?" Hunk asked in concern.

"Yeah," he sighed, carefully peeling back the scorched edges of his suit to inspect the wound. It wasn't too bad, only a couple inches or so across. A bright pink blister was already beginning to form. He rolled his wrist, ignoring the sting as his skin pulled taut against the blister. As far as missions went, he was lucky to get away with so little. "I've dealt with worse."

"Good. We're detecting some interference with the network on our end. They might've figured out there's something wrong with security. We're holding it down for now, but you might want to move quickly," said Hunk. "Don't know how much more time you have."

Keith stumbled into the elevator, relieved to find it free of anymore bots. The doors whooshed shut, and with it the lights faded into a harsh violet, dim enough that Keith had to squint to see. He blindly reached out for the button panel, but as his hands neared, it slowly revolved to reveal a glowing holographic touchscreen.

"Funny, I thought this warehouse had only two floors," he muttered as he eyed the glowing numbers, one through thirteen. They had to lead below ground, but there was a lot to explore with little time left. Whatever the androids were guarding had to be somewhere beyond the second floor, securely out of sight. The darkest secrets were often buried the deepest.

It may have been unlucky, but Keith hadn't been raised to be superstitious. He tapped the button for the thirteenth floor and felt his weight lurch upward as it began to move down.

"We're going underground," he said to Hunk, but Hunk's reply crackled with static, signal weakening as they rapidly moved further below the surface.

The cab slowed to a stop with a ding, doors opening to what looked like a cross between a hospital room and a laboratory. It was dreary and drab like something out of a movie set. IV stand, monitor, wires, syringes, test tubes. In the center of the room sat a cot fitted with thick leather straps, and hovering over it was a piece of headgear he couldn't be positive _wasn't_ a medieval torture device. The sleek, polished steel walls reflected the dim, flickering lights and leant a harsh sterility and coldness - literally - to the room. Keith felt goosebumps rising underneath his bodysuit and a shiver running down his spine.

The room was spotless and clean like it had been tended to recently. Perhaps by the androids, but he didn't see the need if there were no humans in the facility.

He padded over to the flickering monitor mounted on the wall. It was powered on, but all the vitals had gone flat. A flashing text across the top of the screen read _'Intruder detected. Cryo-function disengaged.'_ That set alarm bells ringing in his head. Keith took a step back, ready to retreat to the elevator, but he hesitated, eyeing the wires connected to the monitor. They criss-crossed over the floor, passed the bed, and led straight to a coffin-sized metal chamber that he'd failed to notice in the corner earlier.

Its door hung open on its hinges, freezing air filtering into the room. This is where the cold was coming from. Keith could see the viewing window still frosted over by ice. A cryochamber. Something - or, rather, _someone_ \- had been in there very recently.

A sudden burst of static in his ear caught Keith off guard. The earpiece had long gone silent back in the elevator that he'd forgotten all about it. He could faintly hear Hunk's voice sputtering in his ear but he could hardly make out his choppy words as they faded in and out, too far underground to get a proper signal.

 _"...the mission...et out now...omeone else is..."_ The signal died out abruptly.

"Hunk? Hunk! What is it? Someone where?"

Keith felt them before he saw them. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and there was the faintest ruffle of fabric against his back. He didn't even get a chance to react. A pair of arms wrapped him in an unyielding embrace, lifting him clean off the ground. Keith flew through the air and crashed into the cot, knocking it to the floor.

He gritted his teeth as he pushed himself to his feet, cautiously watching the man prowl about the room, circling him like prey. "Who are you?" he hissed.

The figure had appeared like a phantom materialized out of nowhere. He towered a few inches over Keith, clad in black, a mask over half his face, and his dark hair hung in shaggy waves streaked with white. He glared at Keith, chest heaving and anger in his eyes. All too human.

That was, of course, except for the metal arm. It caught Keith's eye, gleaming silver moving gracefully and naturally, as if it were flesh. The shoulder of his prosthetic was painted with a purple symbol he was well-acquainted with. Like a brand or a logo. Property of the Galra.

The man answered the question, not with words, but a fist to his face, cut blooming on Keith's lip. Blood immediately gushed into his mouth. Keith gritted his teeth against the iron tang. He lunged back at him with his knife, but it clashed ineffectively against the prosthetic. The man caught his blistered arm in a crushing grip and jerked it harshly behind his back. Keith couldn't help but to gasp in pain. The knife dropped from his hand, skidding a few feet away.

He heard the telltale click of a gun, barrel nudging against his head. Before the man could pull the trigger, Keith rammed his head backwards into his chin - once, twice. The bullet ripped clean through his shoulder instead. A strangled cry tore from his throat, but the man's grip loosened just enough for him to squirm out of it.

He pushed back against the pain and whirled on his heel, aiming a kick at his stomach. The man caught his foot in one hand and tossed him off-balance like a ragdoll. Keith grunted as he hit the wall. He didn't have the upper hand here and he was growing increasingly frustrated with every blocked punch or kick, There wasn't much he could use to his advantage with his only weapon still too far out of reach.

Just a few feet away to his left was a lab counter wrapped along the wall. If only he could reach it without getting caught. All he needed was a bit of height, but it was a risky move.

The man rushed at him, not giving him much time to think. Keith just barely avoided getting pummeled into steel, rolling out of the way and to his feet. He vaulted over the edge of the counter, but turning his back was a mistake. His upper thigh seared in pain as a bullet embedded in it. He turned to find the man slowly approaching, gun held in one hand. The other wielded his own knife like a taunt.

Keith steadied himself on his feet, staring down his nose at the man. With a strangled shout, he leapt at him. From this height he managed to swing his thighs around his neck, and the momentum took them both down to the floor at once.

Keith snatched a fistful of his hair and slammed him face-first into the concrete. He heard the satisfying crack of bone and grinned to himself, wrenching his knife back. He tossed it up into the air with a flourish and pressed it to the side of the man's face.

Keith leaned in close until the hair around his ear brushed his lips. "Who. Are. You?"

_"A ghost."_

He'd only managed to nick the man's cheek before he was thrown into a cabinet. Along with a drop of blood, the man's mask had fallen to the floor.

The next moment happened like slow-motion. The man spun to glare at him, bare-faced, and Keith's breath caught in his throat. His tense shoulders dropped and his arms fell to his sides and he stared incredulously at a man he thought he'd lost forever so long ago. Keith couldn't be sure that he wasn't gazing up at a ghost right then.

"Shiro?"

There were two things in life Keith Kogane trusted beyond all else. One of those things was his instinct, and the other was Takashi Shirogane. Former golden boy of A.L.T.E.A. declared dead a decade ago.

All of Keith's memories were dragged to the forefront of his mind. He was suddenly back at the old jungle gym that he and Shiro used to huddle under as kids in the dead of night because nobody was around to tell them no. Back in their shared dorm at the Garrison where Shiro had presented him with his gloves because if he couldn't stop Keith from getting into fights, then he could at least stop him from hurting himself. In the hallway at A.L.T.E.A.'s headquarters, in the aftermath of their first successful mission together, where Shiro had caught his face in his hands and kissed him within an inch of his life, relationship irreversibly upended on its head, but they'd never looked back from that point on. And then.

Ten years ago, Keith had seen Shiro's helicopter go down in the Gulf. He was there when the Galra shot it right out of the sky. And when the agency declared they had found only debris and no body, he'd drunk himself into a stupor, but he'd accepted it. He'd accepted for the past decade that Shiro was _gone_.

And, yet, here he was, staring him in the face. Covered in blood, but it was Shiro nonetheless. Keith could never in his life mistake those dark grey eyes. To his dismay, they stared back at him blankly, not an inch of recognition in his eyes.

Perhaps this was how karma manifested. Keith was no innocent man. He may have been on what history would deem the "good" side, but he'd killed and maimed and tortured for his career. Worst of all, he'd left his own best friend and love of his life for dead. To be salvaged and molded by the Galra into a pawn, a puppet, an asset. Maybe that did make him a ghost of his former self.

Keith deliberately slipped his knife back into the sheath in his belt and held both his hands up in surrender.

"Shiro, I don't know what's going on, but I don't want to hurt you," he sighed. Nothing was worth Shiro's pain. "I won't hurt you. You're my friend. You _know_ me."

Shiro snarled at him dangerously. "No, I don't." He raised his gun and fired once at Keith's stomach. Keith doubled over and clutched at the bullet wound. His cry echoed off the walls.

"We've known each other since we were kids," Keith rasped, chest heaving in pain. "I was nine and you were twelve and you kept trying to save me from bullies even though I could throw a punch better than you. But I guess you've bested me for once." He looked up at Shiro and smiled despite himself.

"Shut up," Shiro barked, striking him in the head with the butt of the gun. Keith's head hit the wall hard and he saw stars, but he continued anyway.

"We were recruited into A.L.T.E.A. at the same time. We were partners."

Shiro forced him to the wall with metal fingers wrapped right around his throat "A.L.T.E.A. will die," he growled. Keith struggled for air past the crushing grip on his neck, but it only got harder to breathe as he was lifted off the floor. In spite of the burning in his lungs, he opened his mouth again.

"I watched the Galra blow up your helicopter," Keith gasped out as his tears spilled over onto his cheeks. He couldn't help himself anymore. "I watched you die. I thought you died. I didn't look hard enough. I'm sorry. I'm so-"

His words cut off abruptly as he ran out of the last of breath. HIs legs kicked out instinctively and his hands clawed desperately at the prosthetic, but to no avail. It seemed The more he struggled, the more his windpipe constricted. Soon, he felt himself growing lightheaded, and his limbs grew weaker and weaker until they fell to his sides.

The last thing Keith heard before he blacked out was the soft whisper of his name.

\--

When Keith came to, he was 36,000 feet in the air. He sat straight up with a gasp and cried out, "Shiro!"

A pair of hands roughly hauled him back into a horizontal position. He hit a soft surface with a grunt. "Lie the fuck down, idiot, you're still losing a lot of blood."

It took Keith a moment to comprehend he was staring at the ceiling of the private jet. He was lying across three seats. It was cold. His bodysuit had been peeled off to his hips. There were bandages wrapped around his body, but they were soaked through in red. Pidge hovered above him, her mouth pressed in a straight line and dried blood underneath her fingernails.

"How did I...?" he trailed off, mouth so parched it hurt to speak. He gaped at Pidge in confusion. She cracked open a bottle of water and held it up to his lips. He lifted his head off the seat and gratefully took a few sips as she explained.

"How did you get here? Well, the Galra had finally figured out we'd infiltrated the warehouse. Took them long enough," she muttered, unable to hide her smugness. "We detected they were sending a bunch of goons over, but Hunk lost you over the earpiece and we couldn't warn you. We were ready to send Lance in for an extraction until Rover spotted you bleeding and passed out on the roof of the building, so we picked you up from there and got the hell out."

"I failed the mission," said Keith, taking it all in. He felt the shape of the flash drive still in his pocket, untouched.

Pidge just snorted. "That doesn't matter. We know about the helicarriers now. That's the most valuable thing you could've gotten us."

He nodded, then, "What happened to Shiro?"

Pidge paused and gave him a strange look. "You've been dreaming again," she replied. A statement, not a question.

"It wasn't a dream," Keith snapped at her, knocking the water bottle out of her hand. It spilled a few feet away, and Pidge leveled him with an unamused look. He ignored her and pushed himself up on his uninjured elbows. "He was there. Shiro's _not dead_. He was captured by the Galra. They turned him into some...some type of soldier. He's the one that shot me!"

"Keith, I was at the funeral with Matt."

"They never found his body, Pidge!"

The thing was Pidge had only been recruited a couple years ago. She hadn't been privy to the details surrounding Shiro's apparent death, as she had known Shiro only as an acquaintance through her brother Matt who'd worked for A.L.T.E.A. far longer than even Keith.

"That's why it was closed-casket," said Keith. "There wasn't anything there."

Pidge was silent for a moment. Keith could tell her mind was running at a million miles per hour. He waited for a response from her.

Instead, Pidge wordlessly crouched down to retrieve the water bottle and twisted the cap back on. She handed it over to Keith, then padded over to the door of the cockpit, but turned back to give him one last look.

"Lie down, Keith. I did the best I could, but you're gonna need a transfusion when we get back to London." It was all she said.

"But-"

Pidge shot him a threatening glare that shut him up. "Mess up those bandages anymore than they already are and I'll kill you myself. I fucking hate blood. And don't fall asleep."

Without another word, she disappeared into the cockpit, and left him to agonize over his own memories.

\--

Keith spent a little over a week in the hospital. Six days for his wounds and three more for his mental well-being.

On the ninth day, Allura visited him. She breezed into his hospital room like she belonged there, stilettos clacking against the linoleum floor. Dressed to the nines as always in a pressed cornflower blue power suit that did not betray her real age. Not a single hair straying from her severe bun. She tossed her briefcase carelessly onto a chair and smiled at Keith. She hadn't bothered with flowers or anything. It was a regular day at work for her, and not as though one of her best agents were laid up in the hospital.

"They're discharging you today," she smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. "Isn't that nice? I've already got a car out front for you."

Keith had already known this. Had gotten word earlier when Lance had brought him a change of clean clothes. He'd been waiting for a couple of hours when Allura had walked in, sending off a text to his landlord explaining why he'd be late with that month's rent.

Despite her words, Allura made no move to lead him out of the room. Instead, she sat on the edge of his bed, folding her hands primly on top of her knees.

Keith had also expected this.

"You already heard what happened," he said, dragging a hand through his hair.

"From Pidge, yes," Allura nodded. "I'd like to get your side of the story."

"Does this exempt me from paperwork?"

"Oh, Keith." Her laughter rang like bells. "Who do you think I am?"

Keith sank into the pillows with a frustrated sigh and tossed an arm over his eyes. He didn't want to recall the mission. He'd spent the past week trying to convince himself he'd dreamed it all. But every time he closed his eyes, all he could hear were the soft syllables of his name, formed in a mouth he'd once known so intimately.

"Everything had been going fine at first. I had no complications taking down the androids. The helicarrier, I'm sure you've seen the footage. It was _massive_. We can't let the Galra deploy them, Allura."

Allura hummed and nodded her head. "Don't you worry about that, Keith. We're in control of the situation. Continue."

"I had been searching for a control room. I should have checked the second floor, but...there was an underground bunker in the facility. I knew whatever was down there had to be more valuable, so I went down there first.

"It was like a laboratory and a hospital. Or an asylum. Something out of a horror film. There was a cryochamber in the room."

"Who was in there?" Allura pressed, but Keith shook his head.

"No one. It was empty when I got down. But there was a warning on a monitor about an intruder. I think the androids must have detected me and sent a signal that opened the chamber."

"Interesting security protocol," Allura murmured to herself. Keith couldn't help but get irritated at her detached manner when he felt like he was about to break apart on the inside.

"It was Shiro down there," he croaked, squeezing his eyes shut tighter. He tried to reconcile the image of his best friend in his memories with whoever he'd encountered on the mission and it hurt. "He looked right at me, and he didn't even know me."

Allura narrowed her eyes at him scrutinizingly. "Takashi Shirogane died in 2017."

"I'm not crazy," Keith gritted through his teeth. "He was there, I swear to god. The Galra brainwashed him! He didn't remember anything!"

"It could have been an android made to look like him. Galra technology is very advanced, you know."

Keith shook his head vehemently. It wasn't an android. "No, I-" _I hurt him._ He blinked back the tears in his eyes. He'd shed enough over this. "He was real. He has to be real. Allura, we have to go back for him. I can't leave him, not again."

"Absolutely not," Allura scoffed. "I can't have you gallivanting around to find one man on taxpayer money."

Keith shot her his most vicious glare like he couldn't believe his ears. "Of course not," he sneered at her. "We're expendable to you, right? You can replace any one of us in a heartbeat."

If Allura was surprised by the outburst from her most loyal agent, she hardly let it show. "That's not what I meant to say," she replied coolly, warning evident in her voice.

Keith turned his gaze back to the ceiling and clenched his shaking fists in his lap. "With all due respect, I'd like to tender my resignation, effective immediately," he droned, refusing to betray the trembling in his voice.

"Don't be ridiculous. You're a valued member of the agency. We need you."

"But you don't believe me!" he cried.

Allura was silent. She sighed out of her nose and looked away from Keith, staring down at a chip in manicured fingers. Suddenly she looked about ten years older than she normally did. "I do," she said. She stood from her seat and walked slowly over to her briefcase. Keith furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he watched her click the case open and retrieve a thick manila folder from inside.

Wordlessly, she left it on his lap. On the top, there was a red stamp that read _Classified_.

Keith opened the folder. Staring back at him were two photos. One of Shiro, battered and bruised, but still very young. The way he remembered him years ago. The other was one more recent. He looked pale, tired, and gaunt. Hair straggly and limp. He had a fierceness in his eyes, as though he were angry at the entire world for wronging him. Keith was angry too.

He nearly tossed the folder away as though it burned him, but he forced himself to hold onto it as he skimmed through the first page of the dossier. The medical procedure read more like torture and the thought threatened to turn Keith's stomach. He flipped to a random page in the middle.

There was a long list of terrorist attacks and assassinations with dates ranging from the past decade. All Shiro's handiwork. Keith could barely comprehend it. Most of these he could recall from the news or work, but his mind was on the government scapegoats who'd all been innocently convicted. It was a thick dossier. He feared what else he'd find if he looked further.

Why did Allura have this?

Keith closed the folder with trembling hands and sent a betrayed gaze at Allura. "You knew," he uttered.

Allura nodded, looking slightly guilty. She smiled apologetically at Keith. "After Pidge told me what happened, I looked into the matter myself and found this. You have to understand, after Lotor took over for Zarkon, the Galra have gotten better at throwing us off their scent. I had to make sure it wasn't a decoy planted to get us worked up while they prepared the helicarriers.

"And now that I've spoken with you, I know it is true. Keith, I believe you. I believe Shiro's alive."

Keith's face crumpled when he could hold his tears in no longer. He felt like he and the rest of the world around him was crumbling to pieces. He clasped one hand over his mouth to muffle his sobs while Allura reached out to squeeze his other hand. "Then why won't you let me go to him?"

Her grip on his hand tightened and she sent him a steely look. "I will stop at nothing to take the entire Galra Organization down just as my father did before me. You know there is nothing I am more committed to than continuing his legacy."

Keith nodded. He'd known both Allura and her late father for as long as he'd been employed at the agency. He had never met a more dedicated servant than either of them to saving lives and working for the greater good. Keith knew this, and yet he could get over the pieces of his heart breaking all over again.

"I know you're rash and you're reckless, especially in your current state. You'll let the agency deal with this as a team, and that's final. I don't want you to mindlessly dive into this and put either of you in danger. We can't afford to lose two agents this time around." Allura's stern glare had softened into something sad and earnest. Her hand loosened around his, but she didn't move it away.

"I can't afford to lose two friends."

Keith gazed at her in shock. It was a rare moment that he got to see Allura reveal her emotions. She was very particular about maintaining her immaculate, professional image. and she'd never expressed before how she valued his friendship. He glanced down at their hands and turned his over, lacing their fingers and squeezing hers in return.

"I'm sorry," he whispered sincerely. "Thank you."

As quickly as she'd let them fall, Allura had her walls reassembled, composure back to normal. She brushed off his apologies like the imaginary crumbs she brushed off her lap and rose to her feet. Her heels clacked noisily as she strolled over to the door. The blank smile was back on her face. She was ready to face the world. "Gather your things, Keith. We don't want to keep Coran waiting any longer. We've got a world to save, after all."

 _Yes_ , Keith thought to himself as he slid off the stiff, thin mattress. A world and a friend. No matter how long the mission, he'd be right there to catch Shiro as he fell.

_As many times as it takes._

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of [VLD Tropes Fest](http://vldtropesfest.tumblr.com) | Comments and Kudos are appreciated.


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